Improvement in hay and cotton presses



UNITED STATES PTENT OFFICE.

IRA JAMES, or MArrooN, Timmers.

IMPROVEMENT IN HAY AND COTTON PRESSES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 41,625, dated February 1G, 1864.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, Inn J AMES, of Mat-toon, Coles county, Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in Hay-Presses; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,

clear, and exact description thereof, reference `and removed ready for hooping. Fig. 3

shows a clamp-bar and its appendages. Fig. 4 is a detached view of my capstan. Fig. 5 shows my sleeve in sectional perspective. Fig. 6 shows the lower batten on an enlarged scale.

The frame A, box B, capstan O, trip-iron K, dog D, slide-head M, sweep F, and doors N and N may be substantially such as now used in the Hewitt7 and other vertical presses. The follower E and beater E are grooved, e, to receive my clamps hereinafter described. rIhe shaft o of the capstan O in my press carries a sleeve, l?, to which is attached a cord or chain, Q, which is rove through pulleys in the toggles S, whose lower extremities are fulcrumed to rail T of the frame, their upper ends being hinged to the follower E. A pawl, I; pivoted to the 'sleeve P, engages, when desired, in ratchet V on capstan and compels the sleeve to rotate with the capstan.

To enable the operator to hold the sleeve stationary when desired, I have applied a brakemovement consisting of a pressure-band, XV, lever X, and yoke Y.

Having thus described my combination for pressing 'the hay, I now proceed to explain my mode of enabling the removal of the pressed hay for the purpose of hooping outside of the press.

C is the lower and G is the upper of two battens having grooves c corresponding in number with the bale-hoops.

J are four bars, each slotted, j, at one end, and having appended to the other end a chain,

L, which terminates in a T-head, I, having a square shank, 2.

Operation: The follower E being down, the batten C is placed upon it and the doors N N are closed. The hay being then fed in at the top of the box I3, about five blows of the beater E ordinarily suice to compress the hay sufficiently for my pressing action. This consumes from three to four minutes. The top board or batten, G, is then placed in the box and descends with thelbeater at its final stroke. rI he operation down to this point is substantially the same as that commonly employed in vertical beatenpresses. rIhe dog D is now removed, and the pawl I is engaged in the ratchet V of the capstan O. The team being then started in the same direction as for beating, the capstan O begins to draw on the 'chains or cords Q, acting to draw the toggles S together, and to elevate the followerE with a progressive power for the space of about ve feet, and so as to compress the hay into a thickness of about twenty four inches. Ihe doors N N being then thrown open, I remove the compressed hay from the press by the following means: The four bars J being slipped into the grooves e in the follower and beater, the T-heads l are engaged in the slots j. The sleeve P being then held fast by means of the brake X, the dog D is withdrawn and the pawl I disengaged from the ratchet V. The brake X, being now relaxed, allows the follower E to descend and relieves the bale,which may now be removed for hooping outside of the press. The bale having been hooped, the clamps are disengaged by a quarter-turn of the T-leads by means of a wrench. 'The descent of the follower E and of the toggles S is accomplished without any rotation of the capstan O, .i

which remains perfectly stationary until the beating is resumed. The dog D being now replaced, the above-described operation is repeated, the hooping of the bale not delaying the pressing action. Y Y

I claim herein as new and of my invention- 1. The provision, in a vertically-acting beater hay-press, of sleeve I?, ratchet and brake movements IV and W X, and pulley and toggle movements Q S T, the Whole bebinding outside of the press, in the manner ing Combined and operating substantiallyT as set forth.

set forth. In testimony of which invention I hereunto 2. The combination of the slotted bars J J setmy hand. J J, chains Z Z, catches l2, and grooved bat- IRA JAMES. tens C c G c, all constructed, arranged, and Witnesses: operating` as herein shown and described, to C. B. BosTWloK, enable the removal of the bale for liooping or E. J EFFORDS. 

